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It’s funny that you said that. I hiked up that trail about two miles before I turned around. After less than half a mile on the way back down I saw a big pile of bear scat on the trail that wasn’t there when I went up.

So well done – I do like the way the light pulls the viewer into the photo – just as a good trail pulls us farther down the path. And I can feel that ground “giving” a bit beneath my feet. I’ve grown so tired of rock-hard ground through our drought. There’s something lovely about a little sponginess. (As long as we don’t go ankle deep in much!)

That’s one of many trails where scenes like that just pull you up the trail to see more. Yes, the ground there was mostly soft with some actually wet places, some moss, some rotted wood and of course stretches of solid rock. There was a sudden rain that day and the temperature under the cedars was in the 40’s.

I will post some photos of the flowers there later. I did see a new (new to me) species of orchid and another plant that I had read about before but had never seen. That trail is about 7 miles long and climbs from about 2600 feet to nearly 7000 as it follows the course of the stream. Where the stream goes into waterfalls and cascades, the trail climbs the steep mountainside and gets into some sunny places and so there is a lot of variety of shade, sun, wet, dry and changes in elevation. There are dozens of species of flowers just counting the ones that I’ve encountered.

I will be visiting there more often this summer. The flowers there are spread out quite a bit in their blooming seasons and I know of quite a few that have not bloomed yet and I suspect there are others there that I haven’t seen in bloom before. The only problem with that trail is that it climbs nearly a thousand feet in the second mile.

so many beautiful images, this one, the other posts… you have been in dreamy beautiful places. tis the season.
i went ‘that’ day to the road south of Hot Springs… I looked for your vehicle 😉
i wandered about but never saw a bitter root flower, so i still have that to look forward to. i did enjoy that road and then on towards Plains and to rd . 556 which is gorgeous. A wonderful two days!

I made it over to Camas prairie too and drove 382 all the way down to 200 without seeing a single bitterroot. I was both surprised and disappointed, and I don’t understand why. Too late?, Too Dry? I remember last year seeing a story in the Char-Koosta News (the paper of the Flathead Reservation) about the annual celebration and feast of bitterroots and I didn’t see a similar story this year, if that’s significant. I did see a group of four mule deer bucks with their horns in velvet though, including one that was quite large.

I was going to say “Mirkwood” till I noticed the glowing sunlit spot beckoning us further into the woods.
How ever did you manage to expose this one properly, with the vast difference in lighted and shadowed areas?

I love this shot, we don’t have big mountains and forests and trails round here, but this reminds me of when I was in BC and climbed through some ancient forest. I sank up to my waist in the leaf litter that had accumulated over thousands of years and felt guilty for disturbing it, but I don’t think I did any lasting damage!

The old growth forests are wonderful to explore. Fortunately there is still quite a lot of that still around and undisturbed (for now). The area in which I live is just south of BC and much of the fauna is the same.